Susan Smith, charged with murdering her two small sons, told police she watched as her older son struggled for his life before he sank alongside his younger brother into a Southern lake, Newsweek reported Saturday.
The magazine's forthcoming edition, due on newsstands Monday, said the 23-year-old secretary, desperate about her financial and romantic troubles, had driven around Union, S.C., in a suicidal haze for three hours with her two children.Quoting police sources, Newsweek said Smith considered killing herself before she drove her two sons to the lake, shifted her 1990 Mazda Protege into gear and let it roll down a 75-foot ramp into the water.
Smith told authorities she had stood by the water's edge and watched as her 3-year-old son, Michael, woke up, panicked and struggled to free himself.
According to the report, the car, with its windows rolled up, floated on the surface before flipping over and sinking to the bottom of the lake.
Police told Newsweek that Smith then ran to a nearby house and asked the residents to call police to report her children had been kidnapped.
According to the magazine, police began to suspect Smith's story and encouraged Smith to go to the media.
As their suspicions grew, investigators encouraged Smith to speak out in the hopes that she would further contradict her original story.